Divers usually wear jackets, or vests, to achieve neutral or slightly positive buoyancy at various depths. The vest typically includes a buoyancy compensator chamber which the diver can selectively pressurize from the diver's air tank in order to adjust buoyancy under water. The buoyancy compensator normally also has an associated pressure relief valve.
Various diving vests with buoyancy compensators are known, such as described by U.S. Pat. No. 4,016,616, issued Apr. 12, 1977, inventor Walters; U.S. Pat. No. 4,561,853, issued Dec. 31, 1985, inventors Faulconer and Langton. However, previous buoyancy compensator devices have tended to be tight, highly inflated in use, and rather uncomfortable, particularly because during exposure to wave impact air is forced out of the associated relief valve which usually means that the chambers are typically inflated to a high pressure level.
One approach to increasing diver comfort has been to provide a soft backpack with a liquid-filled bladder that can be secured to a buoyancy compensator, such as is described by U.S. Pat. No. 4,952,095, issued Aug. 28, 1990, inventor Walters. Another approach (a life jacket design) is described by U.K. Patent Application 8725209, published May 25, 1988, in which relatively flat inflatable panels are described.
However, diver comfort remains an objective for which improvements continue to be sought for diving applications.